


like parallel sinking ships

by beesandoreos, bloodyhands_and_hollowstars



Series: Paradigm Shift [2]
Category: Arrow (TV 2012)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, And in denial, Angst, Established Relationship, M/M, Slade is in love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-21
Updated: 2016-02-21
Packaged: 2018-05-22 08:57:15
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 491
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6073147
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/beesandoreos/pseuds/beesandoreos, https://archiveofourown.org/users/bloodyhands_and_hollowstars/pseuds/bloodyhands_and_hollowstars
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It seems to Slade that Oliver Queen simply attracts bad luck. <br/>But then again, maybe he does too.</p>
            </blockquote>





	like parallel sinking ships

Things were different after they escaped with Shado. Their kisses were fleeting and discreet, snatches of each other’s lips while Shado started a fire or went out hunting. They no longer slept under the same blankets, sharing body heat, but rather directly next to each other, trying to still feel the comfort of each other’s presence through the layers between them. 

Slade wasn’t sure why he and Oliver had, with unspoken agreement, decided to keep their relationship as secret as possible. Maybe it was that if Shado were captured by someone else on the island- because undoubtedly, even though Fyers was gone, the island held more secrets- she couldn’t give up such a major weakness. Maybe it was that it seemed a precious secret, something fucking good on this godforsaken island and talking about it, having others know about it, might end it. And for whatever mad reason, Slade didn’t want it to end.

He wasn’t even sure how it had started, to be perfectly honest. There was no discussion, no one point when things changed between them. One day he had just disarmed Oliver and threw him to the ground, his knees on either side of the younger man’s chest, and the kid gave him that goddamned cocky smirk and reached up with his still-soft hands, taking Slade’s whiskered jaw, and kissed him as if he knew it was the right thing to do. 

So far he hadn’t realized that it really wasn’t, and Slade was impossibly glad for that.

And of course, everything went to shit once more. 

There was a huge ship firing explosives, and he was burned and they took Oliver.

Slade didn’t care about his burns, used his pain to further his rage. God only knew what those fuckers were doing to the kid. He couldn’t leave him there. 

He ignored his blackened skin, ignored Shado’s cautions, and they managed to get Oliver back, worse for wear, along with some girl named Sara. Who Oliver had apparently known. And slept with. (While dating her sister, apparently. Slade wasn’t sure what to make of the massive asshole Oliver apparently was before he washed up here. It wasn’t like he wasn’t an asshole here, but it seemed to be better than when he was rich and powerful.)

Slade tried not to act any more callous towards Sara than could be excused by his admittedly prickly attitude, but he saw the way she still looked at Oliver, with desperate hope in her eyes, and so many memories. She’d seen Oliver happy and laughing in her life. Had made him smile. 

Slade knew that there was no way he and Oliver could have ever happened, could even work, anywhere other than the island, where they needed each other simply as another warm body who accepted the sins of the other. But he and this girl, her eyes still holding warmth and life, could happen. Had happened. 

And he hated it.


End file.
